Tag Archives: Rue Morgue

Cheers to Editor Dave Alexander at Rue Morgue for letting me know that the National Post quoted my new RM piece about Uwe Boll (haven’t seen the actual issue yet), but I completely missed the whole cabinet minister angle.

Kudos to Kill List director Ben Wheatley (and to writer Phil Brown) for a short but devastating observation he made in Rue Morgue #120 (March 2012 issue):

“For me, the difference between the original Dawn of the Dead and the Zack Snyder remake, which I really like as well, is that you know that Romero is actually terrified about dying in a nuclear apocalypse and Zack Snyder’s not afraid of anything.”

The March (#109) issue of Rue Morgue magazine includes my story about the forthcoming remake of the creepy ’80s horror classic Pin (which you can actually catch on Netflix’s Watch Instantly service).

“While many view the movie remake as an idea lifted from the Devil’s own cookbook, some see remakes as an opportunity to rescue deserving films from cult movie exile. Consider director Sandor Stern, who’s taking a second swat at the pinata with a forthcoming remake of his own 1988 film Pin (aka Pin: A Plastic Nightmare), a creepy Canadian masterpiece that was driven into cinematic obscurity by the failing fortunes of its distributor…”

Pick up this issue of Rue Morgue for a candid interview with Stern and Jack Reher, the screenwriter for the Pin remake.

Filed a story for Rue Morgue yesterday about a forthcoming remake of the Canadian masterpiece Pin (1988). My thanks to director Sandor Stern and screenwriter Jack Reher for talking to me about their ambitious goal to bring this story to a wider audience. There’s even a comic book tie-in in the works.

For those who haven’t had the opportunity to see the original starring David Hewlett and Terry O’Quinn, you really owe it to yourself as a horror fan to check it out.

Though I remember it being fairly difficult to get a few years ago, it’s now pretty widely available. If you’re in the U.S. and have access to Netflix, you can get it either on DVD or via their Watch Instantly service. For my money, this remains one of the eeriest movies in horror. There’s not a lot of blood shed, but the creepy factor is through the roof.

[More about the planned Pin remake once the Rue Morgue story appears.]

The January issue (#108) of Rue Morgue magazine contains my piece on the latest censorship crackdown to beset horror movies, this time in Australia.

Zombies are welcome to kill Down Under so long as they don’t do anything to those of the same sex down under. This seems to be the message after law enforcement raided the home of an Australian film festival director in November hunting for a copy of LA Zombie, the latest from Bruce LaBruce, director of Otto, or Up With Dead People.

Pick up the latest issue of Rue Morgue for the rest on this story. As for me, I can’t wait to get a gander at this issue’s feature on Ji-woon Kim’s flick I Saw the Devil, which includes a look at other Asian scare fests, by Phil Brown and Tom Mes.

Anytime Tom Mes’ name (editor of MidnightEye.com) is on something, I am there.

I was pleasantly surprised by the great review of The New Horror Handbook in Rue Morgue magazine 95 (November). As there doesn’t seem to be an online version of that piece, I’m reprinting Brad Abraham’s piece below:

“It isn’t easy being a horror movie fan in this still-young century; years of repeated abuse in the form of terrible films have left us bloodied, bruised and battered, yet we still go back to the well again and again, hoping that maybe this time it won’t hurt so much. Author A.S. Berman feels your pain, but also gives fans reasons to rejoice because, as his New Horror Handbook illustrates, things aren’t as bleak as they seem.

Comprised of equal parts interview and analysis, Berman hits the ground running with chapters on current genre heavyweights Eli Roth and Greg McLean, discussing what forces drove them to create their most memorable works. Canadian horror gets ample examination with the Ginger Snaps series and Vincenzo Natali’s Cube — in the process Berman reveals just how interconnected the Canadian horror scene is. Likewise France’s New Horror Wave receives coverage in the form of in-depth analysis of Inside and Frontieres, which links them thematically to the current wave of xenophobia washing over that nation (as exemplified by the fear of “the other” in these titles). We would also be remiss in mentioning that there is a chapter devoted to Rue Morgue‘s creation and operation, but for the sake of professionalism we decline comment, other than agreeing that it is quite comprehensive.

Berman is also not afraid to critique and criticize; the Saw sequels get an evisceration that would make Jigsaw proud (ditto the Ginger Snaps sequels). He is equally unafraid to defend controversial figures such as Roth, and while his praise is unlikely to earn the filmmaker many new fans (especially among those who’ve already dismissed his work), Berman raises many valid points in Roth’s defense.

Ultimately The New Horror Handbook succeeds in its goal of demonstrating that even in this first decade of the century, horror is just as vital as ever, especially if you’re not afraid to travel off the beaten path and face what lurks in its shadows.”